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Massachusetts may shelter unaccompanied children that are crossing border illegally

Border Crisis Demonstration

A demonstrator holds up a signs outside the White House in Washington, Monday, July 7, 2014, following a news conference of immigrant families and children's advocates responding to the President Barack Obama's response to the crisis of unaccompanied children and families illegally entering the US. A top Obama administration official says no one, not even children trying to escape violent countries, can illegally enter the United States without eventually facing deportation proceedings. But Homeland Security Sec Jeh Johnson basically acknowledged Sunday that such proceedings might be long delayed, and he said that coping with floods of unaccompanied minors crossing the border is a legal and humanitarian dilemma for the US. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
(Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

BOSTON (AP) — Gov. Deval Patrick says he is weighing a request by the Obama administration about whether Massachusetts could agree to shelter some of the unaccompanied children crossing the nation's southern border illegally.

Patrick told reporters Wednesday that the request had come during the past week or so.

He said the children would be held in secure facilities and not released into neighborhoods.

Patrick called the situation at the southern border a "humanitarian crisis" and said he doesn't think Massachusetts should turn its back on children who are coming from desperate situations.

He said his administration is still trying to understand the scope of what it is Massachusetts is being asked to do and how many minors the state could shelter.